[SciPy-user] Why is SciPy better than Matlab or IDL? ;)

[ms]

Vincent van Beveren ha scritto:
> -          In what aspects does SciPy excel, compared to say IDL or matlab?

I would say that its main strength is being a library of a
full-featured, well-supported, cross-platform programming language. This
means you can build arbitrarily complex applications using Python and
Scipy, while it would be very painful with Matlab.

> -          In what ways allows it a scientist to be more effective?

See above.

> -          How usable is SciPy for Plasma physics, molucular dynamics and nanolayer Surface and Interface Physics (the 3 main areas at Rijnhuizen)?

I don't think one could write molecular dynamics engines in python, it's
anyway too slow (I hope someone can tell me I'm wrong!)

But it can be very useful for all kinds of data analysis and
not-enormously-heavy computations (that's what I use it for).

m.